Ultra.
Last year, the live streaming sector exploded as folks started looking for ways to stay connected during the Coronovirus quarantine.
According to a recent report from Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet, viewers spent three billion hours per month watching live streaming content in Q2 2021, up 16% from 2.544 billion hours this time last year.
At a time when in-person human interaction was limited, celebrities, prominent athletes, musicians, and artists all used live streaming sites like Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube to communicate with their audience.
If you’re a brand or business, you might be asking yourself, “what is Twitch.” If you’re thinking about live streaming, you’re not alone. From increasing brand awareness to driving targeted traffic and leads, live streaming is the ultimate content marketing strategy driving growth right now.
That’s why it is imperative that as more businesses enter into this space, they understand how to maximize their reach and grow their business using the tools available on every platform. This article will explain how to reach your audience using two of the top streaming platforms: Twitch and Facebook. We’ll explain the benefits each platform offers and how to connect and go live from your browser using Talk Studio, the browser-based streaming studio.
What are the benefits of Multistreaming?
Expand Your Reach
The most significant advantage of Multistreaming is the opportunity to expand your reach and broadcast to as many viewers as possible. A 1–1 stream on either platform doesn’t have the same impact as a simulcast, which you can stream to multiple channels at once. As a result, you will be able to reach a larger audience and expose your stream to people who may not follow you on Twitch or Facebook.
Engage with the community more easily
Platforms with multistream functionality, such as Streamlabs Desktop and Talk Studio, make it simple to chat with all of your viewers simultaneously. Both platforms merge chat from many networks into a single window, allowing you to easily read and communicate with anyone watching on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or any other platform.
Each platform has its advantages
You can use the insights provided by each platform to your advantage. Use Twitch stats and Facebook stats to examine engagement rate, impressions, and reach on each platform. Discover what content resonates the most with your audience, hone in on it, and produce more of it.
Save Time
Multistream allows you to create material for two platforms simultaneously, rather than live broadcasting to one site, recording and then re-uploading a VOD afterward. This saves you time and effort while giving additional content to your audience.
What are the benefits of streaming to Twitch?
Twitch is one of the most popular streaming platforms. Twitch viewership has increased by 27% year on year, from 5.118 billion hours watched in Q2 2020 to 6.337 billion hours in Q2 2021.
There is a massive potential audience on Twitch, and they offer a ton of community engagement and monetization tools to help you grow your business.
Community Engagement tools
One of the best community engagement tools on Twitch is Twitch Clips! Clipping is a fun native tool on Twitch that makes it simple for your followers to share your material on social media, allowing you to expand your audience. The Twitch community is highly engaged and super passionate. If you’re broadcasting something that your audience truly enjoys, you can encourage them to clip your footage, which could help you get new viewers who may be interested in your content.
Utilizing the extensions available on Twitch is another fun way to engage with your community. Third-party developers make Twitch extensions and offer interactive ways to keep viewers engaged with your stream. Here’s a list of some of the best Twitch extensions available:
- Streamlabs Leaderboard: A gorgeous leaderboard that combines your cheers & loyalty points into a one-panel extension. Sort by session, week, month, or all time. Reward your viewers for being loyal & supportive and give them the recognition they deserve
- Twitter Timeline: Showcase your Tweets and grow your following by adding your Twitter feed to your channel! Embed a robust Twitter timeline with support for images, playable videos, GIFs, retweets, interactable links, and dark/light themes.
- Sound Alerts: Let your viewers play sound effects on your stream to celebrate special moments. Boost viewer engagement and strengthen your community!
There are many different extensions available for Twitch, so check out the full list to see what’s suitable for your stream.
Simple Monetization Options
Create a Tip page: One of the simplest methods to begin earning money from streaming is to create a Streamlabs tip page. Streamlabs partners with various payment processors, including PayPal, to provide you with more monetization options than anybody else in the business. Above all, creating a tip page is entirely free, and they never deduct a percentage of the funds you get.
Step 1: Log in to the dashboard on Streamlabs.com. Click on ‘Settings’ in the lower left-hand corner.
Step 2: Click on Donation Settings > Methods and choose your preferred Payment Processor.
Step 3: Go through the necessary steps to connect your account.
After your account is connected, your tip page will be available at Streamlabs.com/USERNAME.
Use Twitch Bits: As a Twitch streamer, Twitch offers affiliates and partners access to additional revenue via ‘Bits.’ Bits are described as “digital content” and used by viewers to cheer on streamers. Streamers receive $0.01 for every Bit used to Cheer on your channel.
Viewers can purchase Bits at incremental ranges and will earn badges depending on how many bits they send.
Streamers can also set the number of minimum Bits required to Cheer. For example, if you choose 30 bits, viewers will not be able to send a Cheer with 29 or fewer Bits.
A great way to invectives your community to support you with Bits is by including a leaderboard. A leaderboard will display your weekly top supports that have cheered the most Bits.
Twitch Subscriptions: Unlike tips or donations, subscriptions provide you with a more reliable source of income. Subscriptions cost the viewer $4.99, $9.99, or $24.99, depending on the level they subscribe at. Each level unlocks more perks like additional emotes they can use in chat. Streamers receive 50% of the revenue, and they must be either a Twitch Affiliate or a Twitch Partner to get access.
Want to learn how to become a Twitch affiliate? Check out Streamlabs helpful guide to help you hit Twitch affiliate status and learn more about Twitch affiliate requirements.
Integrated Alerts from Streamlabs
On-stream real-time alerts are a fundamental aspect of any live stream and now streamers can add an alert box from Streamlabs to their Talk Studio broadcast. This tool from Streamlabs allows for the deepest customization on the market so that the streamer can create alerts that match their brand. All platform-specific alerts will work on Talk Studio. For example, streamers on Facebook will receive alerts for stars.
Learn more using Streamlabs alerts in Talk Studio by visiting the Streamlabs blog.
What are the benefits of streaming to Facebook?
Facebook also offers a variety of monetization options that can be useful for new brands and business live streaming for the first time. What’s more, between profiles and timelines, there is an abundance of places to reach people on Facebook.
Connect with an already-established audience
Streaming to Facebook is an amazing place to start streaming because chances are that you already have an audience. Whether it’s just friends or family, Facebook offers a convenient place to bring in groups of people that already want to support you.
While streaming on Facebook, you can easily add your Twitch channel to the stream’s description. This way anyone who tunes in will know that they can check out your other content and follow you on Twitch as well. The flexibility to broadcast to pages and timelines also means there are opportunities to reach new viewers.
Talk Studio even recently introduced multi-account streaming. This means you can connect to unlimited Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts and multistream between them all. You can even stream to different Facebook pages at the same time!
Monetization options
Facebook comes with a variety of monetization options, like Facebook Stars and Fan subscriptions.
Facebook Stars: Facebook Stars is a feature that allows you to monetize your live videos. Viewers can buy Stars and send them to you while you’re live or on past live videos that had Stars enabled. For every Star you receive, Facebook will pay you $0.01 USD.
Fan Subscriptions: Fan subscriptions are $4.99, and as of August 2020 and for the next year, Facebook will not be taking any fees. To qualify for subscriptions, you need 10,000 followers or 250+ return viewers and one of the following in the last 60 days: 1) 50,000 Post Engagements or 2) 180,000 watch minutes.
How to stream on Twitch and Facebook using Talk Studio
Step 1: Visit https://streamlabs.com/talk-studio and create an account with each platform you plan to stream to. This is simple to do and takes only a few minutes for each one.
Step 2: Sign-in or create a Talk Studio account. (You can sign in with one of your existing platform accounts such as Facebook or Twitch)
Step 3: Enable your microphone and camera.
Step 4: Add you or your guests to the stream.
Step 5: Connect to the platforms you wish to live stream to
Step 6: You are ready to go live!
Facebook has removed the ability to stream directly to groups via third-party applications. You can bypass this limitation and stream to a Facebook group using a custom RTMP. You can find more information on this change implemented by Facebook here.
In summary
Both Twitch and Facebook offer unique advantages to help you monetize your content and reach your ideal audience. If you want to build your viewership and meet your goals, then your business needs to be present on all networks. To scale up and reach new heights you must connect these two platforms together using Talk Studio.